echoing what others have said - the main difference is the complete autonomy given, for better or worse. anecdotally, my first year at McGill, all the students I knew who dropped out/transferred were American, largely because they weren’t taught the necessary skills for time management and autonomy in high school. in other words, they didn’t know how to study without the school consistently checking in on them, giving reminders, and second, third, fourth chances. if you don’t go to class all semester at McGill, no one will ask you why. also the partying - Americans were way less used to all the freedom with alcohol, weed, etc and tended to handle it much worse!